September

On 24th June we all found out that the UK will be leaving the EU at some point in the near future. What we still don’t know is when, what our trading arrangements will be, whether labour mobility will be constrained, or whether negotiations over these major points will reach a quick or drawn-out conclusion. For us economists, this has raised the difficulty level for our Summer round of construction industry forecasts.

On 30 October 2015, a new independent National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) was launched by the Chancellor, which will oversee the existing £100 billion spending commitment on infrastructure projects by 2020. This also includes the familiar £15 billion Roads Investment Strategy that was announced in the Autumn Statement 2014.

The UK commercial offices sector has remained largely exposed to the uncertainties created by the EU referendum – both in the pre and post periods. This doesn’t come as a surprise given it is a key driver of the commercial sector and has increasingly been reliant on external investors for large projects. One of the many pressing, yet unanswered, questions has been around the likely impact of the uncertainty created by the EU referendum.

Infrastructure forms the third pillar of the UK construction industry. Unlike other sectors – private housing and commercial, chiefly – the sector appears to have limited exposure to the implications of the Referendum outcome and uncertainty created by it.